Due to the mounting global energy crisis, there is a continued focus on improving building design and engineering to reduce energy consumption and enable ‘smart’ energy use. Such ‘smart’ buildings may incorporate a number of dynamic systems that can react to changing environmental conditions in order to minimize overall energy use while maintaining user comfort. Examples include, but are not limited to: variable transmittance electrochromic windows, automated window shades, photovoltaic energy generation and storage systems, heat pump systems, attic fan systems, and sophisticated HVAC systems. For example, an intelligent building energy management system might register that it is a hot, bright, sunny day, and trigger electrochromic windows into a low transmittance state, or lower automated window shades, in order to reduce solar heat gain in the building and minimize building cooling loads. Alternatively, the energy management system might register that the temperature outside has fallen below the internal building temperature, and activate a heat pump or attic fan system to utilize the temperature differential to provide low-energy use building cooling. As another example, a building control system might sense a bright sunny day, but with low building energy use needs, and thus direct captured photovoltaic energy into an energy-storage system or feed it directly into the grid, rather than into local-use applications.
In order for a building energy management system to intelligently respond to changing building conditions, a network of sensors may be required to provide the necessary data for the control system to react to. To provide all of the data needed to fully run such a smart building, a variety of sensors might be required, including but not limited to: temperature sensors, light intensity sensors, and wind (e.g., direction, intensity) sensors. While such sensors are readily available, the shear number of sensors that may be required to ensure a complete building map, combined with the dynamic building controls, can create a large and complicated building energy management system. Any way to combine or reduce the overall number of smart building elements (e.g., sensors or controls) could significantly reduce the overall complexity and cost of the system.